I was viewing an ISS pass tonight with a couple friends when we noticed a third (in addition to the ISS / shuttle complex) object pass in precisely the same orbit. I checked my regular tracking site (heavens_above) and saw nothing. Then I noticed that the Russians launched a cargo vessel this morning.

Could I have seen this object pass in orbit? Whatever it was, it was a beautiful sight!

Hi. I am getting ready to upgrade from my homemade 2 meter Jpole to a commercial VHF/UHF vertical (of course with a bunch of low-loss cable). Is worth? My goal is first to work on satellites like AO-51 and then when I will have some experience, to try *again* making a QSO with ISS, my ultimate goal.
I have a dualband homemade yagi (VHF/UHF) but it is very difficult to move my TRX+PSU from my shack to my balcony every time a satellite is passing. I just want to work them from my chair with no stress every hour and a half :). Please give me some ideas.

STS-127 Mission Specialists Chris Cassidy and Tom Marshburn will tackle a challenging 7 Â½-hour spacewalk today to finish swapping out batteries for the International Space Station's oldest set of solar arrays.

Their outing will be devoted entirely to finishing the work started on the third spacewalk of the mission - removing old batteries from the Port 6 truss structure and transferring new batteries from the Integrated Cargo Carrier on the end of the station's robotic arm to the empty sockets on the truss.

Pilot Doug Hurley and Mission Specialist Julie Payette will position Canadarm2 near the truss for the spacewalk and, once all of the battery swaps are complete, maneuver the carrier back into Endeavour's cargo bay. That maneuver will require them to hand off the carrier to the shuttle's arm for re-berthing by Hurley and Commander Mark Polansky.

The Progress 34 cargo ship launched on time today from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 6:56:56 a.m. EDT (4:56:56 p.m. Baikonur time) to begin its five-day journey to the International Space Station. Less than 9 minutes later, the unpiloted cargo ship reached orbit and deployed its solar arrays and navigational antennas. Two rendezvous burns of the Progress engines are scheduled today and another burn is planned for tomorrow to fine-tune the Progress' path to the ISS.

At the time of launch, the shuttle/station complex and its 13 crew members were flying 218 statute miles over Sapporo, Japan.

July 23rd

Japan's Koichi Wakata will inaugurate the use of Kibo's robotic arm for scientific purposes today to install a trio of components on the station's new "front porch."

Today, the Monitor of All-sky X-ray Image experiment will be moved first, then the Inter-orbit Communication System and the Space Environment Data Acquisition Equipment-Attached Payload.

After the robotics are complete, the entire shuttle crew will field questions from television reporters.

While the crew slept, Mission Control updated Friday's spacewalk plan. Mission Specialists Cassidy and Tom Marshburn will swap all four of the remaining Port 6 batteries on the fourth of five spacewalks. In addition, they'll install a camera on the Kibo porch that was deferred from the first spacewalk. Cassidy and Wolf completed two of the battery swaps on the third spacewalk, but had to end the excursion early because of rising carbon dioxide levels in Cassidy's suit.